From Jessica Alba to Gwen Stefani: Celebrity Mom Entrepreneurs

By owenl | Yahoo Small Business

In the past year there has been a boom in celebrity Moms bringing something else into the world other than their children – new businesses. Maybe there’s a catching entrepreneurial bug in Hollywood. Whatever reason, a host of celebrity Moms have indeed started their own businesses. Here are some of the leading ladies in the Mom business startup category.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba would probably be the favorite if there were to be an award winner in this category. The Honest Company sells eco-friendly products of all kinds, but the star product is eco-friendly diapers. You can also get beauty, cleaning and bath and body products from them. Alba is said to have been pushed to start the company by finding her daughter in her crib with beads from her diaper all over her face. Alba partnered with Christopher Gavigan in order to “help moms and to give all children a better, safer start.” The Honest Company raised $27 million in venture capital in March 2012 from General Catalyst, Institutional Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners

The Honest Company Screenshot

Nancy O’Dell

Nancy O’Dell, host of Entertainment Tonight and a celebrity in her own right is an avid scrapbooker, so it was a natural fit for her to partner with Creative Memories, a leading photo albums, scrapbook albums and photo book vendor. As a result she has her own category within their product line, starting with baby memories and albums and including recipe, romantic, and personal memory lines. Creative Memories markets its photo-safe albums, papers, tools, pens, digital photo books and organization software through 40,000 independent sales consultants worldwide.

The Ashby Collection Screenshot

Tori Spelling

Tori Spelling has teamed up with JC Penney to re-launch her line of baby and kids clothing called Little Maven. This time around it is focused on babies and toddlers (previously it was for slightly older kids). The actress (who has her fourth baby on the way) announced the partnership on her blog and said, “Everyone knows I've had a passion for designing kids clothes for years. So that’s why I'm unbelievably excited to announce my partnership with JC Penney. My designs have found their perfect home! Now I get to create chic baby and kids clothes that also combine fashion and functionality at very affordable prices!” The Little Maven relaunch just happened on September 1st so it’s too early to tell the level of success it is having.

Little Maven Screenshot

Heidi Klum

Heidi Klum, fashion icon, host of Project Runway and now ‘momtrepreneur’ has teamed up with Babies”R”Us on a line of clothing, furniture, bedding and even room décor for kids called ‘Truly Scrumptious.’ Heidi Klum is also a Mom of four and says, “I designed this first collection not only with adorable kids in mind, but I thought of all the little details to make things easier on moms, too.” Heidi Klum’s collection is even fresher than Tori Spellings and launched September 15th. The lineup which including bedding, furniture and even strollers ranges in price from $17.99 sheets to $649.99 dressers.

Truly Scrumptious Screenshot

Ali Landry

If you want a flavor of what it is like for a celebrity to launch a new online product, take a look at Spokesmoms.com and the accompanying Tumblr blog that shows what Ali Landry and the rest of her team are doing to build a new baby product review site. Spokesmoms.com is also launching a ‘reality’ TV show. Unlike other shows that discover new products, "Born by Moms" will focus on the vision and story of the mom behind the product. "Born by Moms" is the brainchild of Ali Landry and Anthony Samadani, the other founder of SpokesMoms.com.

Spokesmom Screenshot

Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani also launched a kids clothing line. Hers, in conjunction with Target is called Harajuku Mini. It goes all the way up to tweens in age and is for boys and girls. Sefani said, “When I get dressed in the morning, it's a reflection of how I'm feeling that day," she revealed. "So when I first went to Japan and saw the Harajuku, I felt like, 'How perfect -- a catwalk for kids to go, 'I want to be real and unique and express myself.'' That's the DNA of the line. It's my style mixed with the way the Japanese dress their kids -- a lot of clashing and mixing and things that you wouldn't think go together. I wanted the Harajuku Mini collection to reflect that kookiness.”